In a hut somewhere in the north, Al wakes up to find his armor in pieces because that's how everyone carried him. Marcoh suggests putting Al back together, and as they're doing this, May Chang gets the idea to scatter the pages of the research documents on the floor and rearrange them. She then connects the markings on each page to make a transmutation circle, the same as the one that's to be used around the country. It's not until Yoki sneezes that Al figures out that they should turn the pages over, and this leads to them connecting the dots to get a new Amestris transmutation circle that incorporates Eastern Alchemy. Meanwhile, Kimblee travels through the mine tunnels and comes across the tunnel that Sloth dug. There, he encounters Pride who wants him to put off looking for Scar and instead cause some bloodshed at Briggs. At around this same time, Breda and Falman are trading notes over the phone about what's going on and how Fuery is in the south fighting for his life. Unbeknownst to Falman, Sloth has just completed the tunnel somewhere underneath Briggs.

Over in the town of Lior, Hohenheim arrives exhausted and is fed by Rose. Afterward, he has her lead him to a passage under the church. Since there is a segment of impassable poison water, Hohenheim proceeds ahead alone using alchemy to create a path. He eventually comes to part of Sloth's tunnel, and after a moment of exploring, he's attacked by Pride. Hohenheim's alchemy can't stop the Homunculus, but Pride can't advance into the passageway that Hohenheim came from, so Hohenheim is safe. Hohenheim guesses that Pride would die if he left the tunnel, and after Pride reveals who he is, Hohenheim conjectures that Father separated Pride from himself first, with Pride being similar in form to Father's original flask appearance. Hohenheim is in no hurry to go see Father though and tells Pride to tell Father that Slave No. 23 will go see him eventually. When he returns to Rose, Hohenheim explains that he went in to declare war.

Back at Briggs, a real war is about to break out because the forces of Drachma, backed by Kimblee, have started attacking. While all of this is going on, one of Kimblee's subordinates calls up Envy and Wrath to tell them about where Marcoh is hiding.